Gaming Can Make A Better World
The following video discusses how game design and game playing can contribute to making a better world. It sounds like a lofty idea, but it is well-argued, as I hope you will see.
Jane McGonigal is not simply comparing games to real life, but is talking about tapping into those abstract qualities that gamers bring to bear against game challenges – applying that determination, hard work, and idealism to real world endeavors.
It can, has been, and will continue to be argued that games are simply games, that they are designed to be won, and that the real world has no such safeguards against failure. But the game McGonigal most talks about – World of Warcraft – ultimately has no point. It has no happy ending. It is game that never ends, which works well for the developers, who continue to make millions upon millions of dollars every year.
You can overcome the most epic of epic challenges, but soon thereafter the game resets to the way it was before that challenge was met, to enable others to do the same. There are people who continue to play Warcraft even though they have achieved the maximum level, have defeated the ultimate boss, and have done almost everything there is to do in the game.
But they will go through it all again, with the same determination and idealism, to help another player have that experience. In the real world that could translate into people helping those less fortunate – i.e. at a “lower level” – after they have solved their own challenges. It is not about pity or guilt, but about mutual understanding of a problem, and collaboration to solve it. It is this kind of idealistic, high-minded, cooperative determination that McGonigal is suggesting we need to employ to take on world challenges.